You can buy three speed motors for next to nothing on ebay. I scrapped ~300 lbs of them last year because I did not feel like selling them for $5-10 was worth my time.
Multi speed seems easiest.
I do not think that you should. They are inexpensive. Especially in a small fractional HP range.
I bought a wood stove. It has a one speed fan on it. Trouble is, it sounds like a jet taxiing. Is it possible to put a dimmer on the motor, or do I have to get a three speed motor, and does that convert to $$$$? The squirrel cage and motor are in one housing, so I'd probably be looking high and low for another combo like that unless I wanted to make one up out of sheet metal, which isn't that hard to do. Or maybe I could find an adaptable squirrel cage and housing. Question is the multi speed or variable speed motor.
What's the easiest cheapest way to go here? I don't mind fabbing stuff up, and it's behind the stove, so no one will see it. I just don't like paying as much as a month's car payment for a specialty motor.
First thing is figure out exactly what kind of motor you have. Bodine's motor handbook should allow you to identify the motor and what speed control options you may have.
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The permanent split capacitor motors often used on blowers will run happily on reduced voltage. There's one on the radiator in my office that I've been operating on half voltage for almost 15 years.
Grainger has lots of choices in inexpensive small blowers and replacement motors, if that's the route you go.
I'll mess with it when I get back from Vegas. To me, it sounds like air noise, as it blows a lot of air. Bothersome, though when watching TV. We made the first fire in it last night, and the blowing air really heated up the big room it is in. As per iggy's response and others, I don't think tweaking it or changing it completely out will be a biggie. I can even mount the motor off of the stove and put a duct to the opening, so that I can have the motor on a rubber mounted box and not transferring sound through the stove. Lots of ways to go.
That's why I wonder if it might use a universal motor. Fan or blower noise is usually a function of speed, and universal motors run at higher speeds than induction motors. That's why leaf blowers and shopvacs are so noisy: they're very high speed blowers.
See what you can learn when you get back from Vegas re what sort of motor it has, dimensions, speed, etc. Another possible solution is to retrofit it with a DC motor, as perhaps the fan motor from an automotive radiator fan -- a junkyard item. Those are easy to speed-control but you'd need a 12VDC source and perhaps a bit of simple electronics, either an inexpensive commercial motor speed controller or something you could probably make for under 20 bux if you're up for a bit of soldering.
Gunner might have some real nice 90-volt DC motors. You might need a few minutes at the lathe to make a fitting-up adaptor.
Thanks, iggy. The router table you sent me works great. But I think that I can either rheostat this down or just get a three speed motor for less than it would cost in time and money to recreate the thing.
Lots of gas water heaters get scrapped every day. The "eductor" fan on the top of many late model water heaters can be used as a forced air fan on a woodstove and is generally a lot quieter than what you are describing. Best of all to an RCMer is they are generally FREE!!!!!!!!
Even if it's a single phase squirrel cage motor, PROVIDED it's a permanent capacitor run (i.e.not split phase or capacitor start) it may be possible to make some speed reduction with a lamp dimmer because a fan load is much more forgiving than a machine tool load.
It's very dependent on both the motor design and the dimmer type and not all combinations are suitable. However it's a quick and simple check so it's worth a try.
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